These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

It has been a FREEZING cold week this week! We got snow, and every day it's been getting down to 20* below zero or more. So, this weeks favorite things list will reflect that! Enjoy!

1. My electric blanket!!!!
Our bedroom has very little insulation in it, and there is a big draft that comes in through our closet. So, on these nights of 25* below zero, I am so incredibly grateful for my electric blanket. Last year I dreaded climbing into bed because the sheets were always FREEEEZING! But this year I bought a Sunbeam electric blanket and I turn it on about a half an hour before I climb in bed. It is FABULOUS to climb into my nice, warm, super cozy bed. I turn it off before I fall asleep and usually end up turning it back on around 5 a.m. when I wake up freezing again. (I'm too scared to leave it on all night!) This blanket is so wonderful!

2. Our wood stove
I am SOOOO happy we got this installed when we did! Our boiler has gone out yet AGAIN (third time in 2 months. Grrrrr!) So we are without hot water. Since our house is heated by baseboard heaters, we would be in serious trouble! Our stove has saved our cold little tooshies more than once this winter! And I have to admit, there is something about going outside to bring in some wood, building a fire, and sitting in front of it to warm up that is empowering. It feels good to be able to take care of your family. It must be the cavewoman in me. ;) Now, to go outside and kill a mammoth for dinner....

3. Windshield De-Icer


Can I just say how much I hate going outside on Sunday before church (cutting it close as usual) and realizing I have to scape the windows on the van? In a skirt? And darling open toed high heels? This stuff is so wonderful! You just spray it on the windows and it melts the ice off instantly. I just have to run the windshield wipers a few times and we're good to go. Love it. I will never go without it again!

4. Gilden paint samplesThese really came in handy this week! I've had the painting itch. Usually I'm pretty good about looking at the paint sample cards at Walmart and being able to pick what I wanted. But now Walmart has changed paints and they have these little bottles of samples that are less than $3 each. So, I bought a pretty gray one for the master bathroom, a super cute green (like the sample in the picture) one for the kitchen and a slate blue one for our bedroom. The paint color on the little bottle looked exactly like the colors I had envisioned in my mind for our home. But, when I put them on the wall they looked HORRIBLE!!! They looked so different in the lighting of our house than the lights at Walmart! the I was so glad I didn't go ahead and buy the whole gallon things of them and start painting away like I usually do. So, from now on, I will always get one of the sample things first. It's totally worth the few dollars to not make a huge color mistake that I will have to look at every single day.

5. This gum!Since I've been trying to watch what I eat and cut down on the snacking I've been chewing a lot of gum. I've really grown fond of this stuff. I don't even know who makes it...but it's at pretty much every store I've seen. All of the flavors I've tried are good, but the minty flavors seem to help me not snack so much. Things don't taste very good when you have leftover mint flavor in your mouth. Like drinking orange juice right after brushing your teeth. YUCK. I tried Orbit gum, too...but it gets kind of hard to chew pretty fast and I have to spit it out because my jaw gets tired! But this stuff stays nice and soft for a long time and retains flavor really well. Good stuff.

Well, there you go! Have a great week, guys!